A group of young volunteers have been helping Norfolk and Waveney Mind’s community allotment project in King’s Lynn to blossom.
The green-fingered teens spent two weeks digging and weeding at the Gardening 4 Health allotment in North Lynn as part of their National Citizen Service, which offers 16- and 17-year-olds the chance to contribute to their community and build their work and life skills.
As well as helping to maintain the allotments, the youngsters safely rehomed a couple of frogs which they named Freddo and Neil.
The allotment project aims to help people in the local community develop a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives, by giving them the opportunity to be physically active and develop their creative expression, while meeting other people in a safe and enjoyable environment.
Zena Penty, Volunteer Manager at Norfolk and Waveney Mind said: “We’re delighted to help groups such as the National Citizen Service to develop new skills like gardening, painting and woodwork while supporting our project to increase social inclusion and wellbeing in the community.
“Thank you so much our amazing volunteers who have restored our project following lockdown and the NCS team for their hard work during their visit.”
National Citizenship Service, Relationship Manager, Emma Fuller, added: “Our volunteers all said how good they felt about doing this project, and how it gave them a sense of achievement when they saw their final outcomes. A couple of them had benefitted from Norfolk and Waveney Mind’s services themselves and talked about how amazing the charity is.
“We can’t wait to come back and get our young people involved in helping Norfolk and Waveney Mind as much as we can.”